NHL Rumors: Kane Not Done With Rangers Yet?

As Patrick Kane gets ever closer to making his decision on where he'll play in 2023-24, a rumor out of New York is that perhaps he wants another shot with the NY Rangers. 

We've heard rumblings of this before, but as we come down to the wire, ESPN's Emily Kaplan reports that Kane would like to make another run at it in the Big Apple, being unhappy with the way he played there after arriving at Madison Square Garden from Chicago in late February. 

I'm told that he wanted to run it back, he felt really frustrated by how hampered his hip was last year, felt like he was playing on one leg, and wants the chance to do it again. (But) I'm told that (Rangers general manager) Chris Drury is, like, 'Whoa, pump the brakes: the cap space is gonna be hard, (and) I don't know if we want to mess up what we have here with (head coach) Peter Laviolette.'

So it sounds at this point like Kane would have to take a big cut in his asking price to return to the Rangers, sort of a hometown discount, so to speak, leaving the prevailing notion of the Florida Panthers being the frontrunner as the rumor that makes the most sense at this point. Kaplan agrees with this hypothesis as well. "If Kane wants to sign long-term, I know that the Panthers have been super bullish on him."

Photo: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports